VANCOUVER – Interpol has issued a red corner notice against nine Indo-Canadians for their alleged involvement in a drug smuggling network operating out of Punjab, India and one which was like the Mexican style drug cartels being run by ex-Punjab cop Jagdish Bhola, who was arrested last year and remains in police custody.

Aujla, former president of the BC Kabaddi Federation, told the Vancouver Sun newspaper that he would go to India “to fight the case”.

Charges against most of the nine men on the list, including Aujla, were filed more than a year ago and were widely reported in the media and none of the men have gone to India since the charges were announced.

Aujla said he was in Punjab when Jagdish Bhola, a former cop and wrestler who operated the lucrative drug network supplying heroin and methamphetamine to North America and Europe through Canadian contacts who smuggled drugs out of India, was arrested, but was never questioned or taken into custody by police.

“I have learnt that there is no case against me in India,” he said.

Aujla said Wednesday that he thinks the charges against him are political since he has helped the Congress Party in his home village in Punjab — a state where Congress rival Akali Dal rules. But backers of both parties are known to be involved in the drug racket to finance political operations.

Aujla says he only learned of the Interpol warrant when a reporter called him this week.

“I swear on my kids’ lives I am innocent. I have two beautiful kids. I never did anything wrong. I don’t know what’s happening,” Aujla told the Vancouver Sun, saying he only knows one of the other eight Canadians on the list— the Surrey-based Daleh, who used to be a kabaddi player.

Another Richmond resident – the 60-year-old Deo, who says he is retired, told the media that he had hired a lawyer in Punjab to get more information about the case. He said he hadn’t been in India in four years.

“I am shocked at this news because in India, someone sitting in jail is telling stories,” Deo told The Sun Wednesday.

“I don’t know what’s going on. I have also written to the head of police in Chandigarh because I want to know what the charges are. I was not in India. I was in Canada.”

He said his lawyer has a Sept. 28 court date to get more information.

Deo says the Interpol warrant is also surprising because he has provided Indian officials of his addresses in Canada and in India, as well as his contact number.

“I am not hiding or anything,” he said. “They have all my records.”

Deo said he has not been contacted by Canadian officials about any pending extradition hearing.

Canadian Justice department media officer Andrew Gowing told the Sun that they can’tcomment on whether extradition requests have been made.

“Due to the confidential nature of state-to-state communications, the Government can neither confirm nor deny whether extradition requests have been received related to these individuals,” Gowing said.

The original list of those being sought in the drug racket had the names of 40 Indo-Canadians but that list has now being cut to nine.

The LINK earlier reported that the questioning of the mastermind of a drug racket Bhola, also known as King Kong, revealed how sports clubs in India, Canada and North America lured international kabaddi players and wrestlers into the drug trade.

Sources said it had been revealed that Sports clubs in Canada and Europe were being used for the distribution of drug consignments.

“In recent years, the spending on kabaddi and wrestling tournaments by NRIs has increased tremendously,” said the police.